Antique & Vintage Postcards

A copper-toned raised Liberty Bell dominates this lush embossed greeting card, its famous crack faithfully rendered in gilded relief against a warm cream ground — purple pansies arch above in Art Nouveau splendor, their metallic leaves catching the light. Published by P. Gritzmann of Philadelphia and printed in Germany during the golden age of chromolithographic embossing, this undivided-back card captures the patriotic souvenir craze of the early 1900s with uncommon elegance. The bell's yoke and inscription band are legible in the embossing: "Pass and Stow / Philada / MDCCLIII." A friend signing only with initials H.G.R. sent it to Hannah in Warwick, Orange County, New York — a small Hudson Valley farming town — sometime around 1905, a simple gesture of friendship preserved for over a century.